Wines & Spirits: Fine Pine(apple) Wine

with Daryl F. Mallett & William R. Mallett

A change from the normal every day wine made from grapes, we have discovered wine made from pineapples!

Introducing…Maui Blanc.

Maui Blanc is a wine made from the juice of pineapples. The fermentation of pineapple juice in temperature-controlled vats, stopped at near dryness, has created a soft, dry, fruity white wine with a distinctive and unmistakable pineapple flavor.

We heartily recommend this wine to complement any “white wine dinner,” but especially ham with pineapple, fish or seafood dinners or chicken or turkey meals.

The beautiful labels depict the painting Puu Ola’i, a scene of the coast below the winery. The painting was commissioned especially for the Maui Blanc label and is by Hawaiian artist Curtis Wilson Cost.

Created by Tedeschi Vineyards, located on the island of Mau’i, Hawaii, this wine is grown, fermented, aged and bottled in the heart of the pineapple-growing world.

The standard 750ml bottles retail for about $6 each. You can write to Tedeschi Vineyards at:

Tedeschi Vineyards Ltd.

Ulupalakua, Maui, HI 96790

We have also seen wines made from just about every fruit in existence and have just been told by friends that garlic wine exists. We are currently searching for a bottle. Just the thing to ward off vampires simply by dining well!

An ironically named wine, at least to readers and science fiction folk) is Dandelion Wine, which is produced by the Ackerman Winery. Named for Ray Bradbury’s classic book, this wine’s producer shares the same name as another of the Grand Masters of the field, Forrest J Ackerman. We’ve only seen one bottle to date, and am unsure if the winery still exists, but we are anxious to try this particular wine, as well as to obtain a bottle to place on the bookshelf next to Bradbury’s book. Maybe we’ll even ask Bradbury to sign it…”

About the Authors
Daryl F. Mallett is a professional editor, freelance writer and actor who is trying to convince his father that drinking excessive amounts of wine might be damaging to an older gentleman. (Then he is planning to move in and drink the wines himself.) William R. Mallett is a research chemist who collects fine wines like his son collects fine books…and that’s saying something! He is always on the lookout for something new to stash away in his wine cellar, where it will quietly age, never to be seen by mortals again.

(Originally published in The Riverside Review Magazine, Vol. 1:7, June 1992.)